27. Synchronous Peripheral Interface (SPI)

The Stamp9G45 features two SPI ports, with four respectively one chipselect available.

The Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) circuit is a synchronous serial data link that provides communication with external devices in Master or Slave Mode. It also enables communication between processors if an external processor is connected to the system.

The Serial Peripheral Interface is essentially a shift register that serially transmits data bits to other SPIs. During a data transfer, one SPI system acts as the "master" which controls the data flow, while the other devices act as "slaves" which have data shifted into and out by the master.

A slave device is selected when the master asserts its NSS signal. If multiple slave devices exist, the master generates a separate slave select signal for each slave (NPCS). The SPI system consists of two data lines and two control lines:

Master Out Slave In (MOSI): This data line supplies the output data from the master shifted into the input(s) of the slave(s).

Master In Slave Out (MISO): This data line supplies the output data from a slave to the input of the master. There may be no more than one slave transmitting data during any particular transfer.

Serial Clock (SPCK): This control line is driven by the master and regulates the flow of the data bits. The master may transmit data at a variety of baud rates; the SPCK line cycles once for each bit that is transmitted. The SPI baudrate is Master Clock (MCK) divided by a value between 1 and 255

Slave Select (NSS): This control line allows slaves to be turned on and off by hardware.